Forme di cortesia nella storia dell’italiano: cambiamenti nella lingua e nei rapporti sociali

In the history of the Italian language, the politeness system is a fascinating theme from all points of view because it involves developments in social history, contacts with other cultures, variations of sociolinguistic nature and changes within the language. It is therefore a key to understanding society and the relationships between people in synchrony and in diachrony, even beyond the linguistic system. This paper focuses on the main factors involved in the politeness system and its evolution in Italian, with particular regard to nominal and pronominal address forms.